Odd Alliances Form In Efforts to Place Nader on the Ballot

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY and SARAH KERSHAW; Michael Janofsky reported from Washington for this article and Sarah Kershaw from Seattle. Eli Sanders contributed reporting from Seattle.

Published: July 1, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 30—
In his search for access to the ballot, Ralph Nader can sometimes seem as if he has never met a third party he did not like.

After all, Mr. Nader, the left-leaning consumer advocate, and Patrick J. Buchanan, the right-leaning commentator, hardly seem like political soul mates. But four years after Mr. Buchanan won the endorsement of the Reform Party, Mr. Nader has succeeded him as the party's standard-bearer.

His alignment with the Reform Party is but one example of how Mr. Nader is facing such daunting forces to get his name on statewide ballots this year that he is seeking support from groups that do not necessarily share his long-held liberal beliefs.

Mr. Nader's efforts have only intensified given that last weekend he was spurned by the Green Party, which endorsed him for president in 1996 and 2000.

He is also getting helping from other unexpected quarters. Democrats have sued to keep Mr. Nader off the ballot in Arizona and Illinois and may be planning a similar challenge in Texas, but Republicans and some conservative groups in Oregon, Arizona and Wisconsin are feverishly, if not cynically, mobilizing to get him on ballots in those states in a drive to siphon votes from the likely Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry.

Mr. Nader said in an interview on Wednesday that ''there's no quid pro quo'' with the Reform Party or any other that would require him to alter his views.

But political analysts say that by turning to parties that may not be consistent with his ideology and reaping benefits from Republican operatives, Mr. Nader risks tarnishing his longtime reputation as a champion for consumer causes.

''He's grasping at straws,'' Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, said of Mr. Nader's alliance with the Reform Party, which drew most of its votes in the last three presidential elections from disaffected Republicans. ''He has a drive to run that propels him, irrespective of the consequences. He risks appearing to be a figure of ridicule.''

So far, Mr. Nader is on the ballot in six states -- Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Colorado, Kansas and Montana -- because of his affiliation with the Reform Party, while David Cobb, the Green Party nominee this year, will be on at least 23.

Oregon had a nominating convention in Portland on Saturday and county officials there are still verifying the signatures gathered for Mr. Nader.

Richard Winger, the publisher of the newsletter Ballot Access News, which tracks third-party fortunes, said presidential candidates outside the mainstream often sought out alternative parties for support, even ones with divergent ideologies.

He cited three examples: Robert M. LaFollette, a member of the Progressive Party who in 1924 also ran under the banner of the Farmer-Labor and Socialist Parties; George Wallace, a former Democrat who ran in 1968 as the Conservative Party candidate in Kansas; and John Anderson, an independent in 1980 who ran as a Liberal in New York.

The Reform Party was only one political organization Mr. Nader approached for help. In West Virginia, for example, he sought the support of the Mountain Party, a progressive group that shares many of his views on issues like election reform and universal health care. He was told the party was not interested.

Shawn O'Hara, national chairman of the Reform Party, which was founded by Ross Perot, sought to play down differences with Mr. Nader. He insisted that Mr. Nader's views were not entirely out of sync with the party as currently constructed, at least on some issues, like their mutual opposition to world trade agreements and the United States military role in Iraq.

''We've moved to the center,'' Mr. O'Hara said, while conceding that he once favored the execution of doctors and nurses who performed abortions but now embraced abortion rights as provided by federal law, as Mr. Nader does.

Even Mr. Buchanan said he found Mr. Nader's union with the Reform party ''not unexpected'' inasmuch as many of Mr. Buchanan's Reform Party followers left the party when he did after the last election.

''The Buchananites had very strong positions on social issues, but, by and large, they left,'' Mr. Buchanan said. ''My guess is the platform has changed back.''

Perhaps even more unusual is Mr. Nader's apparently unwitting alliance with Republicans in states where a small shift in voting could swing the election. Conservative groups have already mobilized for Mr. Nader in Oregon as well as in Arizona, where 46 percent of the registered voters who signed petitions last month to get Mr. Nader on the ballot were Republicans, almost double the percentage of Democrats or Independents, according to a state Democratic Party lawyer.

In Wisconsin, a conservative group said it was preparing to follow Oregon's example, by urging Republicans to sign petitions when Mr. Nader's signature drive begins.

''We'll definitely be spreading the word that we'd like to see Nader on the ballot,'' said Cameron Sholty, the Wisconsin state director for Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative antitax group. ''We'll do phone trees and friends-of-friends, and those Nader events will be a great way to drive our membership to get out to sign petitions for Nader.''